First of all, I'm a beginner to Linux. I've been using Sabayon for a few years but haven't come close to unlocking the full potential of Linux.

But the desire for a Ubuntu based distro was overwhelming, so the other day I partitioned my hard drive once again and added Mint to the mix.

As much as I already love Mint, I'm already having some video issues that were never apparent in Sabayon. When I try to enable desktop effects, I get the following error message:

Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous values. Check your X configuration. You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the compositing type.

Also, OpenGL-based screensavers are ridiculously slow, and the 3D widget Blue Marble gives the error "This object could not be created for the following reason: OpenGL Shaders not supported"

I supposed that things weren't playing nice with the regular nVidia drivers, so I installed the latest proprietary one (version 180). This didn't fix the problem.

I downloaded drivers straight from the nVidia website and installed them without incident. Window movements were flashier by default and the widget worked, although it was rather slow. The screensavers were still slow. Desktop effects could be enabled without producing an error message, but when I changed stuff nothing happened (yes I clicked 'apply').

So I went back to the default drivers, tore my clothes, poured ashes on my head, etc.

If you notice you do not have anything similar to this in yours.It looks as if perhaps you installed the driver but did not enable it.Go to Control Center>>Hardware DriversSelect the newest Nvidia driver and click activate.

I have not used the KDE version of Mint so I hope it has a Control Center

let me knowmick

Last edited by mick55 on Thu Dec 10, 2009 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I went to Applications - System - Hardware Drivers, activated the latest nVidia proprietary driver (180), and restarted. Hardware Drivers now shows that it is active, but I still don't have a GLX Renderer entry in my inxi -F output. In fact, it looks exactly the same except that my refresh rate dropped to 50hz.

It makes sense that Mint doesn't see my video card as a GLX renderer considering everything seems to work perfectly except rendered effects. Thanks for the suggestion.

I found an nVidia X Server Settings which I assume is KDE's version of an official display manager. Interestingly, under "OpenGL/GLX Information" the menu displays "Fail to query the GLX server vendor." There doesn't appear to be an option to enable these settings or troubleshoot.

Just out of curiosity, I uninstalled and disabled all nVidia drivers and installed the drivers from nVidia's website again. Now I finally get a GLX entry in my inxi -F output and OpenGL/GLX information in X Server although I still can't make effects work or get things to run correctly.

I was in the midst of tweaking Grub and suddenly needed to boot into Windows 7. Long story short, apparently Windows 7 decided to be typical and read "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" as "Hey, I think I'm going to randomly overwrite the partition table of this completely separate hard drive that has nothing to do with my MBR, thus destroying all three operating systems and associated software/drivers/data."

I hate Windows.

However, when I reinstalled Mint I was able to activate the proprietary driver and finally use desktop effects. I was rather excited until the computer gods smote me once again; for no apparent reason Mint started doing the thing it did with nVidia's official drivers: windows flip around "fancily" (annoyingly), and I can technically enable desktop effects though nothing different happens when I change these effects.

GLX still shows up in my inxi -F output, but unlike before it appears even when proprietary drivers are inactive.